Painting with Watercolours on Paper Towels

I love it when one activity spontaneously creates a new one. My daughter had just finished painting her Recycled Carton Bird Feeders, I took a glance over at all the paint left over and it was perfect for an activity I have been wanting to do again for a long time - using water colours to paint on kitchen roll.

We have done this for fun before and created a beautiful Butterfly Craft with it. Today we set it up just for fun. The art technique we experimented with did link in brilliantly with the art Jackson Pollock was famous for! Lots of fun! We enjoyed painting in the style of Jackson Pollock in the Summer last year on a much larger scale but this activity was perfect for the table top. 

You will need:

Surface/Container 

Paint

Water

Pots

Paint Brushes

Jug

I set this activity up outside. You can create the watered down colours prior to the activity if you wish however do keep in mind having children involved in the whole process is important. I have my daughter the opportunity to add water to the pots and she did a brilliant job! She concentrated and used her hand eye co-ordination when pouring the water. We used a small gravy jug that worked excellent for little hands. I also used recycled yogurt pots to mix our paint in. 

Initially the water sat over the paint. The paint didn't move from the bottom. As she started mixing she was amazed to see the vibrancy of the paint appear in the water. 

TIP: The more paint you use in the pots the more vibrant the colour will be.

Once all your colours are mixed up ready, reach for the paper towels. It was a windy day today but we were able to keep the towels held down with the pots of paint. Once the water was being added we had no issues with the wind lifting up the towels. Neve did a great job of placing the towels around the tray and making sure it was all covered up. 

Then it was the fun part. Getting stuck in and flicking down the paint. You could see the paper towel soaking up the watercolours before your eyes. 

My daughter loved the freedom of being able to use gross motor movements to paint, making this a must do activity outdoors for us. I love when children have no restrictions and if I was doing this indoors I would have had to have encouraged her to use much smaller motions. 

It wasn't long before the paper towels were completely covered over with a beautiful array of colours that had worked their way into mixing with one another. In addition to this activity we were able to touch upon a little science too. We spoke about how the paper towels looked and felt and I asked my daughter what she thought may happen if we left the paper towels so wet outside. 

Here is our activity in action:

A few hours later we returned to see the sun had been super busy and had absorbed the water making the paper towels dry. It was no suprize that my daughter insisted to do the activity all over again.
Lots of fun! I am looking forward to doing this activity again with her soon.

Have you ever done this activity? Get in touch and send some of your photos to us! We love seeing what you have been busy doing.

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